Mon, Sep 10 Chest/Tricep Workout
Well I’m still trying to get back to where I used to be after taking "cold turkey" one year break. I have been training very hard and eating pretty well for about 5 weeks now, and I have regained some of my previous strength and lost some of that unsightly fat around my stomach. The biggest difference I have noticed since I have been back is the endurance factor. My strength in low rep sets shoots up steadily and rapidly. However, any time I do a compound exercise(bench, squat, military, etc.) for a set of more than 6 reps my muscles reach failure very quickly and inproportionately. I called my old roommate, who is an absolute beast at 6′0" and 255 pounds, for advice on a high rep, high volume, endurance-driven routine. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to lose weight or get ripped right now(usually the types of goals associated with higher reps). I am trying to get as muscular as possible while gaining that all important muscle endurance. I will be increasing the weight as much as possible and constantly pushing my muscles to grow. I started the doing the higher reps last week and have already noticed significant improvements. The program my buddy suggested is based around 5 working sets of twelve reps on most compound exercises. After four weeks you switch to 5 sets of 9, then move to 5 sets of 5 after another four weeks. I’ve seen my buddy make some outstanding gains on this program so I decided to give it a try. However, I will be changing reps every 3 weeks because workouts become very stale to me, and I like to vary certain factors to keep a high intensity. I think it is a good idea to set a short term rep goal to keep me motivated and give me something to shoot for on a day to day basis. I have found that if you are only motivated by changes in your body, the time it takes to see these gradual, visible results can discourage you quite a bit. That being said, I have set my rep goal at 12 solid reps with 315. I benched 320 for 2 at the end of my bench routine aobut two and a half weeks ago, and I am constatntly getting stronger so I think it realistic to press 12 reps on a fresh day in about 5 weeks(give or take). I estimate that I could get 3 or 4 reps at this weight right now. Now I have a quantitative goal to work towards.
Yesterday my chest/ tricep routine went as follows
Bench Press: 225 x 12 Dumbell Bench: I did 4 sets of 12 with
235 x 12 100 pound dumbells
245 x 12
255…only got 10
275 for 6
Barbell Incline: Only did 10, 8, 6 here, My chest was absolutely shot. I did 185 pretty easy for the first set. Struggled like hell to get 8 with 205. Then I only got 4 and 2 foced reps with 225.
Incline DB flyes: I dont pay a lot of attention to weight or reps here. I just squeeze and try to exhaust my entire chest. I used 35 to 45 pounds on all 4 sets here and did between 8 and 12 reps each set.
We finished up chest with a couple sets of cable cross overs and some push ups. By this time my chest was absolutely dead and I was sore for the first time in a while in my chest. Good shock day.
Now it was time for triceps, but I was feeling very fatigued so I went home took about an hour and a half break, got some protein, ate some chicken, drank some water, and came back refreshed. I used to train straight through and workouts would sometimes reach up to 3 hours. I would get no pump and feel like I was just "going through the motions".
Now days I am all about intensity and creating a pump. Where I used to do 5 or 6 exercises with lower intensity, I would now rather do 2 or 3 exercises with 100% intensity. I have accomplished much better workouts recently when utilizing these mini breaks.
Anyway, I got back and did 4 or 5 tricep movements. I started with skull crushers and then moved on to push downs(my favorite). I also did some kick backs and a seated hammer machine that is much like a skull crusher movement.
By the end of my workout I had a pump to die for, but I also felt like I almost did just that-die for that pump. Overall it was a good day in the gym. I felt motivated and strong. It’s easy to do that when you’re seeing results. I’m just fearing that inevitable day when I hit the plateau, didnt get any sleep the night before, and all my friends are out partying. Those days are the real tests of strength. Well thanks for reading if you made it this far. Sorry so long winded.
